Government

SCETV forum tonightSouth Carolina ETV will broadcast a 5th District candidate forum at 7:30 tonight featuring Democrat Archie Parnell, Republican Ralph Norman, David Kulma of the Green Party and Josh Thornton of the American Party. The moderator is Charles Bierbauer, dean of USC’s College of Information and Communications and a former CNN correspondent.

Party: Democrat.
Age: 66.
Residence: Sumter.
Family: Wife, Sarah. Daughters, Julia and Lydia.
Education: Graduated from Edmunds High School in Sumter in 1968. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of South Carolina in 1971 and his law degree from USC in 1974.
Employment: Retired. Worked as a senior adviser on tax law for the Wall Street financial firm Goldman Sachs.
Civic involvement: Treasurer at St. Stephen’s Chapel (Anglican), 2003-07.
Political experience: None.
Top issues:

Party: Republican.
Age: 63.
Residence: Rock Hill.
Family: Elaine R. Norman, wife of 42 years, whose family is from Lancaster. They have a son, three daughters and 15 grandchildren.
Education: Graduated from Rock Hill High School in 1971. Received bachelor’s degree in business from Presbyterian College in 1975.
Employment: President, Warren Norman & Co., real estate development firm.

Party: Libertarian.
Age: 54.
Residence: Columbia.
Family: Divorced, no children.
Education: Graduated from high school in 1980.
Received bachelor’s degree in business administration from West Virginia University in 1984 and a master’s in accounting there in 1986.
Employment: Semi-retired, self-employed.
Civic involvement: Involved in church and local community groups.

Congressional hopefuls Archie Parnell, Josh Thornton and David Kulma debated key issues Friday night – and targeted absent GOP candidate Ralph Norman – at a Rock Hill candidate forum hosted by the state NAACP.
Noticeably absent from the American Values Forum was Norman, who was listed on the original press releases for the event but later canceled his appearance, citing a scheduling conflict.

Members of Lancaster County’s legislative delegation were in Columbia on Tuesday for a special called session of the General Assembly to approve next year’s state budget.
During the session, lawmakers considered an $8 billion general fund budget worked out last week by the six-member Conference Committee noted for funding increases for schools, including the University of South Carolina Lancaster, and the state’s pension fund.

The city of Lancaster’s biggest recruiting tool in its quest to replace the departing Duracell operation, Jamie Gilbert says, is the quality of Duracell’s workforce.
“We’ve been out there several times in the last couple of months,” said Gilbert, Lancaster County’s economic development director. “What you see is a workforce that is as committed and dedicated to get the job done as they were prior to the announcement they were closing.

KERSHAW – Town officials hope that finding and fixing a gigantic water leak will save Kershaw enough money to offset several unavoidable expense increases in the proposed $3.9 million budget for 2017-18.
The budget, which passed first reading May 15, does not include a property tax increase at this point, though that might change before second reading. The town is awaiting information on how much it will get through the local-option sales tax.
“It’s going to be tight again. It always is,” said Mayor Mark Dorman.